The Future of Obama's Stealth Gun Control

(11) In 2005, Mr. Obama voted in the U.S. Senate to ban nearly all rifle ammunition in common civilian use. [source 3]

(12) Mr. Obama opposes four of the five Supreme Court justices who affirmed an individual right to keep and bear arms. He said he would not have voted for Scalia or Thomas and voted against the confirmation of Alito and Chief Justice Roberts. [source 1]

(13) Mr. Obama voted to allow lawsuits against firearm manufacturers for the acts of third parties beyond their knowledge or control. Such suits were designed to destroy the domestic firearms industry. [source 2]

(15) A 2008 report revealed that Mr. Obama was in favor of mandatory micro-stamping, a scheme which would significantly increase the cost of new firearms while simultaneously establishing a massive registry. Despite uniform scientific evidence that the scheme does not and cannot work, efforts to impose it continue today. [source 10]

(16) In 2008, ABC News reported Mr. Obama’s support for gun bans in major cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C. [source 5]

(17) Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign website indicated his support for the repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment, which prohibits information on gun traces collected by the ATF from being used in nuisance lawsuits against firearm dealers and manufacturers. This too is a battle anti-gun forces continue to fight. [source 11]

Note that Mr. Obama’s antipathy for guns and their owners was abundantly clear from virtually the first moment the public took notice of him. None of this should be surprising. Mr. Obama is, after all, not only a Democrat, but a product of the Chicago political machine.

Mr. Obama’s anti-freedom inclinations have not abated. He has merely put them aside temporarily in the pursuit of larger progressive goals. Just because gun control has not had the kind of exposure enjoyed by ObamaCare does not mean it is not part of Mr. Obama’s agenda.

Mr. Obama’s judicial appointments have been an important means of anti-Second Amendment activism. His two appointments to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, professed their support for precedent and the Second Amendment during their confirmation hearings, but voted against Second Amendment freedoms at their first opportunity after being confirmed.

More recently, Mr. Obama nominated 39 year-old Berkeley Law School Dean Goodwin Liu for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals [source C]. The 9th Circuit is known as the most liberal appeals court in the nation, and has earned the dubious distinction of being the court most overturned by the Supreme Court. A staunch progressive, Liu’s writings revealed a man of no judicial experience who favored deciding cases based on progressive policy goals rather than the Constitution. Liu’s anti-gun views were predictable and available in his own words in several prominent articles. Fortunately, Liu’s nomination was blocked and eventually withdrawn.

As has been recently reported, acting ATF head Kenneth Melson may soon be out the door, the first Obama administration victim of the Gunwalker debacle. This has lead to speculation that Mr. Obama will again nominate Andrew Traver of the Chicago ATF office to head the agency. Mr. Traver’s anti-gun credentials are impeccable. That Mr. Obama would even think of nominating someone like Mr. Traver to head the ATF with the Gunwalker scandal still boiling is surely indicative of his attitude toward gun control. [Source F]

The objection could be raised that Mr. Obama’s relative lack of overt action on gun control initiatives indicates that he is not a stereotypical progressive gun banner. But on May 25, 2011, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air [source B] provided substantial and disturbing information that dispatches this charge. It seems that Mr. Obama has a “point man” in the White House in charge of gun regulation policies named Steve Crowley. Mr. Crowley was profiled in the Washington Post “Lifestyle” section in April. A gun control point man seems rather odd for a president who isn’t planning to pursue gun control policies.

In addition, on March 30, Sarah and Jim Brady of the Brady Center, one of the most prominent anti-gun organizations, met with Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney. Mr. Obama met with them as well, and according to Sarah Brady told them that gun control was “…very much on his agenda.”

Brady quoted Mr. Obama: “I just want you to know that we are working on it. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

According to Morrissey, the Huffington Post has reported that the Department of Justice has been holding meetings to plan options for enacting gun controls by bypassing the legislative process though executive orders or regulation making by federal bureaucrats. This method of autocratic rule is nothing new for the Obama administration. [source B]